Prisoner who claims he was injured by dental floss loses bid to revive lawsuit

A state prisoner who claimed he was injured while using dental floss can't keep suing the firm that made the oral hygiene product, a Pennsylvania court has ruled.

The Superior Court's order upholds an earlier decision by York County Judge Thomas P. Linebaugh that sank Thomas W. Thompson Jr.'s lawsuit.

Thompson, a Spring Grove man who is serving a 10- to 20-year sentence on attempted murder, aggravated assault and arson convictions, filed his product negligence case in 2011. He claimed Floss Loops, a floss product shaped like a little rubber band, was defective and injured him after he bought and used it at the York County Prison.

The exact nature of the supposed injury was not outlined in the state court filing. Thompson also claimed in his suit that the maker had falsely advertised the product as being mint-flavored.

Thompson appealed to the state court after Linebaugh dismissed his lawsuit in March. Linebaugh killed the suit because Thompson disobeyed a court directive and repeatedly refused to answer questions posed by the floss maker's lawyers during a deposition for the civil case in the state prison at Laurel Highlands.

In the Superior Court opinion backing the dismissal, Judge Jack A. Panella found Thompson cited no valid reasons for not cooperating during the deposition. Thompson's action, or rather inaction, was "indicative of a pattern of dilatory behavior aimed at thwarting the legal process," Panella wrote.

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